Star Wars: The Work of Shadows
by mringer
Summary: Before the events of The Force Awakens, a group of young Jedi are returning to the new Jedi Academy after a mission. They arrive home only to find that someone has attacked the Academy and killed all of their friends. After searching through the carnage they find that Luke's body is not among the carnage. To find their Master, they must follow the few clues they have.
1. Chapter 1

The swirling blue maelstrom of the hyperspace conduit disappeared in a flash. The view through the front ports were now replaced with tiny white pin pricks of light and a large green sphere floating throughout the star field. Rohana finished pulling back on the hyper drive throttle and reached across the console with her other hand and switched on the ships internal communications.

"Ok guys, we're now above Torinth. Everyone should come up here and strap in before we land." She suggested.

A Wookie, Zabrak male, human male and female entered the cockpit of the Star Runner and sat in the four seats behind Rohana and put strapped into the shoulder restraints on the seats. Rohana looked puzzled at one of her readouts to her left. She began to press a few of the controls and then looked over to the human male to the right of her.

"Kane, I'm not detecting the encrypted transmission array we've been using at the academy. Scanners are picking up a residual energy spike though of a hyperspace departure." Rohana said with a concerned tone.

Kane unbuckled from the seat and walked up toward her. Cane, nor any of them were dressed in the traditional robes of the Jedi but carried lightsabers on their belts. He looked at the readouts and then back at the large rainforest planet ahead. He pressed one of the buttons on the console and leaned in.

"Luke, this is Kane. Do you copy?" He paused for a response but none came back. "This is Kane on the Star Runner. Is anyone there?" The continuing silence made him nervous. He looked down to Rohana. "Take us down to the academy."

Kane went back to his seat and then heard a voice in his head. He looked over to the large Wookie next to him. Wrrbask, or Bask as they called him was one of the few Wookies left in the galaxy. He was rescued from an Imperial facility by Han Solo and Chewbacca. They were conducting horrific experiments on Wookies and had surgically removed Bask's vocal chords. He was no longer able to make any noise. Chewbacca knew Wrrbask's clan and knew that some had been force sensitives. He brought Wrrbask to Luke in hopes that he could do something for him. Turned out Wrrbask was strong in the force and Luke was able to teach him to communicate through the force. Anyone he communicated with would hear a voice in their head in whatever language was their native tongue. He could also understand any language spoken to him. Bask was also gifted in sensing residual energies and past events.

Kane looked into Bask's eyes. "What's going on Bask? Do you sense something?"

Bask shrugged and looked back at toward the planet. ' _Someone was here. A dark hand touched the planet. I sense seven shadows, rain…no, a storm.'_ He stopped for a moment and then his eyes went wide. ' _I sense death Kane_.'

Kane didn't say anything in response. He instead watched as the planet got bigger in front of him and saw clouds wash over the front of the ship. When the clouds broke the Star Runner leveled off to the ground below and headed toward the Academy. He could see the lush forests below and a pillar of black smoke on the horizon. They all knew it was coming from the Academy. Rohana landed the Star Runner on the smooth stone of the starport. They all left the ship through the back and headed down the ramp. Shin, the other human female collapsed from the sight around her. Several bodies littered the ground around them. The pale smooth stone was stained with blood. Arygn, the Zabrak male put his arms around her to try and comfort her. Kane looked around for a moment before realizing Luke's body was not one of the one's scattered out around them. He sprinted to the main building of the Academy. It was more of a stone bunker than a temple. Once a Republic station during the Clone Wars but after the war it was abandoned and forgotten. Luke decided to set up his new Academy on Torinth because of how forgotten and remote it was. As Kane got close to the entrance, he saw a few burns from blaster fire along the wall and something even more troubling. The locking mechanism of the bunker had been sliced. Kane knew it was from a lightsaber. He ran his fingers through the deep cut.

Bask put his hand on Kane's shoulder. ' _Maybe from one of the students?'_

Kane shook his head. "I don't think so. Whoever did this wanted in."

They hadn't heard Rohana come up behind them. "If it wasn't one of us, who was it? Could it be the Sith? Shouldn't Luke have sensed them if they were back?"

Bask closed his eyes and searched through his senses. ' _I sensed a darkness and shadows, I can't tell if they were Sith though._ '

Shin and Argyn had joined them and were looking at the battle damage on the bunker. Shin was still sobbing but then stopped when she saw the saber strike. "Was it Ben?" She asked.

Kane looked to the sky in an almost silent prayer. "There's no evidence that suggests that Shin. I know him and Master Skywalker had that argument but Ben would never do this. He left here and swore he'd never return."

Rohana, Shin and Kane entered the bunker and Argyn and Bask went to check the other structures. The lights in the main bunker flickered. Kane could still smell the smoke of blaster fire. They headed down the main corridor to the door at the end. Kane noted that the door had been ripped from its hinges. The room was Luke's chambers. The furniture and contents inside looked as if they had been caught in a whirlwind. Everything was thrown around except for the stone table that was attached to the floor. Kane stepped over all of the debris and saw Luke's lightsaber resting on the table. The pale stone was red specked from what looked like blood. He started to fear the worst. He heard Rohana's voice call over to him from one of the corners of the room.

"Kane! It's R2, he's over here." She called to him.

Kane ran over and examined the droid. "Why is he still here? Maybe he can tell us what happened."

Rohana was on the other side of R2 checking him out. "It looks like he's in some sort of power save mode. I'm not sure how to get him out of it. There's still no sign of Luke. Was he taken prisoner?"

Argyn and Bask ran into the room. Argyn was out of breath but Kane saw he clearly had something to say. "Luke's X-Wing isn't in the main hanger."

Kane felt a slight flutter of hope. "If his X-Wing is gone, maybe he escaped. If he was taken prisoner it'd still be here. Argyn and Shin, go check out the control room. Bask and Rohana, can you go see if anyone is still alive in the barracks. I'll keep looking around the main hall for clues."

None of them questioned their orders and they all split up to keep searching. Kane stayed in Luke's quarters hoping to find a message or clue Luke may have left behind. After several minutes of digging around through the debris he found nothing. The feeling of hope was starting to fade. Kane put his hands on the smooth stone table and leaned forward. He closed his eyes and silently cursed. Luke wouldn't have left without leaving anything. He looked down and saw a blue light coming from under his palms. Suddenly a holographic display appeared and floated above the table. The holo-screen displayed only one sentence. _Message sent._

Kane pulled up his communicator. "Shin, check the buffer in the transmission array. See if you can pull out coordinates of where the last transmission went. Looks like Luke contacted someone before he disappeared."

Shin and Argyn just got into the control room when they heard Kane on the communicator. They looked around and saw that whoever attacked also destroyed most of the equipment. Shin went to the communication console and saw the screen had been smashed. Luckily before Luke found her, Shin was working as a station engineer on board Helios. Helios was a gas processing station in the far reaches of the outer rim. Things were always breaking, including the communication dish and array. Shin knelt down below the console and pried off the access panel below and started pulling out cables and connectors from inside.

"Argyn, see if you can find me a working display." Shin asked without looking away from the Wamprat nest of cables.

Argyn sifted through any of the components strewn across the work stations. The attackers did a great job at making everything obsolete. As he headed over to Shin to tell her there was nothing left his boot caught something sticking out from underneath one of the tables. He looked down and saw the legs of SKPR-6, a tactical droid Luke used to coordinate operations in the control room. Argyn remembered that SKPR's optical sensors also had an output mode that could project holographic images. He pulled the droid out from under the table and saw that his chest piece had been blown apart. He wouldn't be able to carry him over to Shin so he sparked his lightsaber and sliced off the head.

Shin looked up from under the console and saw Argyn standing over her with a severed droid head. She was initially startled but then smiled. "Brilliant, I can use SKPR's holo-projector as a display."

Shin put her fingers through the neck of the head and up into the main housing. She pulled out one of the cables and connected it to the cable from the console. The eye's flickered and soon a flickering, static filled image appeared in the air above them. Shin squinted as she made out some of the symbols and numbers. She pulled out her communicator and told Kane to go back to the ship and get ready to plug in information into the ships navigational computer. He from the main bunker at a speed only a Jedi could run, the force pushing him faster and faster. He ran up the ramp of the Star Runner and entered the cockpit and sat down at the nav station. He radioed back to Shin that he was ready. She read him the numbers from the transmitter and he entered them into the ships navigational database. The ship's computer worked as it searched for the home of the coordinates. Finally a display popped up with results.

Kane laughed. "Whoever Luke contacted, they're on Takodana. Maybe he tried to contact Maz."

Rohana was the first voice back over the communicator. "Kane we found something."

Kane heard the quivering in her voice. "What is it Ro?"

"It's a helmet Kane. It's a Storm Trooper helmet." She said with a trembling voice.


	2. Chapter 2

Several men sat around a large ring of a table in the cold, dim war room of the Finalizer Star Destroyer. A holographic image of the galaxy hovered in the middle of the room, casting a blue hue on their black officer's uniforms and their pale faces. They were all talking among themselves when a young officer with blaze red hair got visibly impatient and spoke out.

"What are we waiting for? Shall we not get this meeting under way?" He asked.

"Colonel Hux, you'll have to be patient. The Supreme Leader is sending his right hand to attend this meeting. It'd be wise to not push your luck with our leader if you ever hope to make General." An older officer scolded.

Hux swallowed deeply to not lash back at the man. "My apologies General. When I followed you to the Unknown Regions I committed all of my spirit to this endeavour."

"The First Order appreciates your contributions. Your Storm Trooper program has been invaluable but I still think Colonel Falwyn's clone trooper program could work better. It provides a fully mature and trained army faster." The General tried to calm him.

Hux's eyes flared. "General, with all due respect. The Clone Program will fail. It faces the same short comings as the original Clone Army. Clones offer a singular genetic target and a designed bio-agent can attack the entire group. I know the cloning processes have come a long way since the Kaminoan Clone Army but I still feel that my indoctrination program will provide a stronger and more diverse army."

"Regardless, while the Galactic Concordance was meant to cut out our legs from under us, we've slowly rebuilt and are nearing the time to strike. As long as we don't show our hand too early to the Republic we will return." The General said with a fiery passion.

Before Hux could respond to the General's statements, the door to the room slide open and a swath of light from the corridor cut into the dim room. Two men dressed in long black cloaks entered the room and stood along the wall on each side of the door. Their faces were each covered by a different black and metal mask. A third man stepped into the room and stopped just inside the door. Hux could see the glare from the hologram reflect off a thin black visor. The man had a commanding presence as he scanned the room. He stepped forward and took a seat at the table.

The General gestured to the other men. "This is Kylo Ren. He's a non-military asset but has Command level authorization and authority."

Hux leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table and locked his fingers. "Ah, so this is Kylo Ren." He said with a hint of venom. "This is the man that has been spending a small fortune on collecting relics and bobbles. I heard you've been hunting down artifacts that belonged to Darth Vader. He bought Vader's old lightsaber for the price of a Star Destroyer and it doesn't even work. It was damaged at the battle of Endor. Now you're looking for his mask. Why?"

Kylo Ren placed his lightsaber on the table in front of him. "It's not so much the lightsaber I was after but what was inside. Darth Vader's crystal, while fractured, was still functional. As for why, it is none of your concern Colonel." His voice deep and mechanical sounding as it was reproduced by the mask.

One of the other men at the table sat back in his seat and looked at Kylo Ren. "Are you supposed to be some kind of Darth Vader clone?"

Kylo Ren tilted his head to the side while looking at the man. Everyone could guess what his facial expression was. "Not even close. I am Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren and second hand to the Supreme Leader. I do not have to prove myself to any of you, nor do we have the time."

The last few words hung on Hux's thoughts. "Wait, what do you mean we don't have the time?"

The deep mechanical voice started again. "I have set events in motion that have accelerated the plans The First Order had at striking back the Republic. I have crippled their ability to definitively rid the galaxy of us but have shed light on our true strength."

Back on Torinth, the five remaining Jedi regrouped back on the Star Runner. Rohanna was making repairs on the ship. Something she had been accustomed to with the aging, patch worked ship. The New Republic did not want provoke the First Order by showing support and aligning with the new Jedi. So they had to do with what they had. Extended flights and multiple hyperspace jumps made it necessary to make the occasional system and hull repairs. The Star Runner's bare metal, arrowhead shaped hull had two small fixed wings and an Incom corp quad engine. The inside was fairly plain with a small cockpit, bunk area for six, common space and a cargo hold. Rohana heard stories from Luke about how Han and Chewie held the Millennium Falcon together with conduit tape but the Star Runner was in just as rough shape.

While she worked, the others sat in the common area. All eyes were on the Stormtrooper helmet sitting on the table in the middle of the room. A large slash was cut through the left eye and side of the helmet. The room was silent until Bask walked over to it. He cautiously reached out and touched the helmet. Images flashed in his mind as he drew from the history of the helmet. He pulled his hand back quickly and then looked at Kane.

' _The First Order attacked the Academy. The helmet belonged to a female Stormtrooper. She was in charge of the squad that came here. One of the students attacked her with a lightsaber. They injured her but she was still alive when she left. She has fierce rage in her met by an unbreakable focus. I could hear lightsabers clashing outside the barracks. There was more than just Stormtroopers.'_ Bask communicated.

Argyn leaned forward between his knees with his legs in a wide seated stance. "If Luke is missing should be contact the Republic? Maybe even his sister?"

Shin shook her head. "We can't. The ships long range communications dish was damaged on our last mission and the Academy's systems are also scrapped. I was lucky to pull the last transmission coordinates out."

"We can't also risk alerting the First Order and have them intercept a signal." Kane added. "Our best shot right now is to head to Takodana. It's the only lead we have right now and who knows, maybe he's there and was just calling ahead. Worst case we get there and check things out and then send a message off."

Rohana came over the ships intercom. "I'll be done patching up the ship in about fifteen minutes."


End file.
